Tito's "Limited" Democracy
Tito's "Limited" Democracy Two articles In The Motion, by Hal 1 ..-tu man, reporting from Belgrade, provide a striking illustration of a foreign correspondent's education. Writing from...
...President Truman needs a victory on this vital domestic issue...
...Foster, Daily Worker, Sept...
...There are...
...I am told there are three methods for disposing ef suspects: mobilization and shipment to remote areas whence no letters return: arrest by the OZNA and disappearance...
...more than a hundred pro-government journals in Yugoslavia and not a single one for the opposition...
...Latin America other bases on Latin American soil are arousing new fears of American imperialism...
...It is safe to assume that the Administration will bend every effort to achieve some tangible results...
...kidnapping or murder by unidentified 'bandits' with whom the police somehow never rstch up...
...Labor'* insistence on - higher pay only if aecompanied by 'the retention of current prices...
...Crimea againat the state, by incriminating anyone threatening the 'people's authority," gives the government carle blanche for the prosecution of all critics...
...Thia bill furthermore would create a new and independent agency in the executive branch of the Government to he known as the "United States Board of Arbitration," composed of three member s to be appointed by the President with 'he advice and consent at the Senate...
...America will be given ever greater impetus...
...Thirteen deputies, including the Croat moderate and former minister Subasich, have already filed protests with parliament concerning trie manner In which these committees are operating in Zagreb...
...About representative democracy: "Other partiea have many posts and the semblance ef newer, but the Communists possess it in reality because they hold the key positions...
...After two days of vain attempts to see the police authorities, or the prisoners, or st least learn the charges, Lehrman,was finally informed that the youths had been accused of association with the Chetniks...
...Lehrman answers this appeasement line with facts: One measure of hope liet in the re-gime's sensitivity to foreign opinion...
...WARTIME WAGE EARNERS AVERAGED $2,000 Washington <i.pa)- Wsg« earners employed throughout the year during the war averaged about $2,000 a year, according to the CIO Economic Outlook...
...Now he writes: "Belgrade rumbles with rumors of terror in the provinces...
...But corporation profits after taxes were taken out increased 147 percent from 1939 to 1944, the Outlook stated...
...The Nation has justified repression of criticism in Stalin's sphere (which now includes Poland, Bulgaria, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, as well as Yugoslavia) on the ground that it will arouse Communist resentment and make conditions worse...
...I did not believe the stories which assailed me on my arrival here about the preaecution of Yugoslavs who do not regard Britons snd Americans ss enemies of the nation —until proof exploded under my note...
...Here almost every accusstion sgainst Tito's regime made by The New header is confirmed...
...About freedom of the press: "Article erne of the law on the press guarantees itt liberty, but eighteen other articles proceed to restrict it...
...But the most startling and hopeful thing about Lehrman's article is his view on criticism of Tito's dictatorship...
...It will militate against the setting up of unreasonable claims and will give the public a fairer picture of what is involved in a given dispute...
...a bashf for a tentative program foe i annual industrial peace...
...For instance, our present official and unilateral brow-beating of Argentina, which has been resumed as soon as we got Latin America to sign on the dotted line at San Francisco, is not likely to promote good neighborliness or strengthen sound inter-Americanism, That policy, already pursued for a year and a half prior to San Francisco, hail already been revealed to be quite futile...
...Whither Labor-Management...
...In the in-«¦ i ¦ in British imperialism n'aa>« hay...
...so does Secretary Schwellenbach, whose remaining at his post may very well depend on the outcome of this conference...
...This bill would empower the President to appoint special hoards of inquiry to hear farts respecting any labor controversy and report back to the President, so that if and when he deems it desirable, the facts may be made available to the public...
...WlLL this conference be able to reconcile the conflicting snoods and interests and clear the atmosphere of tension that is currently pervading the industrial scene the country over...
...In the steel industry, for example, the return to the 40-hour week will cut earnings between 25-30 percent...
...The lesult of efforts to impose a puppet American regime i« Argentina will merely increase distrust of the United States everywhere to the south, and at the same time it wilt st lengthen the Nuzjs and reactionaries on one hand, the Communists on tht other, and puts the democratic element* of the country under a stigma of being pawns of an outside power...
...Milan (irol't resignation from the Vice-Premiership brought fervid denials of "totalitarianism" and hasty recognition of the oppotition't right to speak its mind in the parliament...
...In his earlier article, Lehrman wrote that Yugoslavia was "the one country in Central and Eastern Europe where foreign correspondents are restrained only by discretion and professional integrity...
...The, earlier wave of adverse public sentiment whipped up by the outbreak of strikes appears U be receding...
...This Mi Malum Thomas bill, which has thus far been barely noticed in the press, if, of course, far from perfect...
...At the height of the war, when wages reached their peak, average weekly earnipgs were: All manufacturing industries $47.52 Highest paying industry (locomotives) ______............._______$65.fi5 Lowest paying industry (workshirts)__....................$21.57 "With the end of the war, anil the elin-ination of overtime and night premiums, weekly earnings of those fortunate enough to hold on to their job* have taken a downward plunge," the Outlook emphasized...
...It is now fairly clear that inter-Americanism and the good-neighbor policy were chiefly wartime efforts to keep South America in line while the battle waa going on< The propaganda we flooded southward was ho badly handled that it scarcely reached the mass of the people...
...It has already split the Radical Party and brought part of it into support of the government...
...Labor, it would teem, feelt fairly thong entering this 'matting vit-a-vi* the powerful aggregations of employers it will meet...
...About free elections: "'People's committees' are empowered to draw up voting lists...
...William 7...
...We must cleanse our Party of all traces of Browder's bourgeois liberalism...
...With that policy aew in collapse and with the resumption of big-atickism, the political extremes in Latin...
...The second article in 7 he Nation of September 8 is entitled "Yugoslav Democracy, Limited...
...The devices which this bill offers, nevertheless, deserve serious consideration...
...Writing from Yugoslavia's capita] on August » (Na-tion, August 18), Lehrman reported "Progress in Yugoslavia...
...The award of this board of arbitration would be final and conclusive...
...A constructive labor-industry program coming from this mixed conference might contribute a good deal toward evening up the score...
...Correspondents need passes for travel more thsn a few miles outaide of Belgrade, and only Soviet correspondents sre able to get them...
...The new American line is due not wholly to breast-beating love of democracy, a love not manifested in Brazil or Paraguay, but to oil, public utility rates and the new world-wide drive for American monopoly of the airways of the globe...
...Both the suggested board of inquiry and the board of arbitration lack the tri-partite feature, at least to the extent that the permanent members to serve on them should lie selected from industry, labor ami the public...
...The President has met with one reversal after another in Congresa on labor issues—the liberalization of idle pay, the full employment project, the I- KIT, the federalization of employment services...
...The bill, if enacted into law, may become" an instrument which will exert a legitimate pressure on both sides in labor-industry disputes to exert every effort to reach an understanding...
...This report was based on official statements guaranteeing abolition of censorship of outgoing dispatches, democrstic republicanism, secret and free elections, and a more conciliatory attitude towards Britain and the United States...
...Lehrman reports that two Belgrade youths who spoke at a Yugoslav- Amer-ican friendship meeting were arrested at 2 A. M. the following morning by tha O/.NA, Tito's secret police...
...labor's interest in jobs for all including veterans, and the railing of tkf curtain on th* fantastic profits unseated by industry during the war year*, are making a deep imprestion...
...Even the small publicity given abroad to Dr...
...About free speech: "And tho law on...
...The Census Bureau estimates the present population of the United Slates at about 139,700,000, an increase of 8,000,000 since 1940, which is almost aa great as the increase of the previous decade...
...I cannot confirm or deny these reports— because 1 have been unable* to go and see...
...23, 1945...
Vol. 28 • November 1945 • No. 44
